Imperfect Summonings
by Eternal Payne
Summary: Sometimes, a Mage will summon something, and it won't go quite as they planned.


I do not own [Prototype] or Familiar of Zero. Any parts that resemble the games or anime are probably from them.

This takes place after [Prototype] and I am ignoring the events of [Prototype]2

I always found it strange that no matter what Louise summons she always manages to bind it without difficulty, regardless of how dangerous or deranged the creature she summoned actually is.

- E.P - E.P –

Alex Mercer stared at the silvery disc hanging in the air in front of him, in the middle of a busy street, at least by post-infection standards. It had been a few weeks since he had pulled himself together after having been reduced to chucky paste when he had flown the Nuke out of the city and things had calmed down significantly. Dana was awake and well, even if he was still putting of the conversation of who and what he actually was.

All the humans on the street were just moving round it as if it wasn't even there, sliding sideways as if pushed by an invisible force. Whatever it was, it wasn't natural and Mercer had no desire to investigate further than that.

He turned and walked away from the disc, putting it out of his mind. It was hard enough holding his form when he was surrounded by so many sources of Biomass without worrying about whatever that thing was.

- E.P - E.P -

An hour or so later and Mercer was getting annoyed. The silver disc had been following him around and was now hovering behind him on the roof of the building he was stood on. He had sprinted away from the thing and flew from the tallest buildings but still the metallic disc stayed the same distance behind him.

It was starting to get irritated.

It didn't affect him or anything, and no one noticed it, but still.

Landing on the top of a nearby building he turned and glared and the metallic oval, still hanging in the air. He moved closer to it, then circled it, the oval turning to face him with every step. He glanced around the rooftop for a moment, a few air condition units meeting his eyes but otherwise it was deserted.

Mercer walked over to one of the air conditioning units, his arms bulking up as his muscle-mass form engaged. He lashed out with both hands, driving them deep into the metal unit, feeling it crumple in his palms, then lent back and ripped the entire unit out of the ground. Lifting it over his head with a grunt Mercer turned back to the unmoving silver disc.

He took a step forward, shifting his weight, and hurled the unit towards the oval. Surprisingly, or not depending on how you looked at it, the unit flew straight through the disc like it wasn't even there, continuing on over the next building and then down onto the street below.

Mercer ignored the sudden screams and cries for help, he had more important things to think about.

He extended his hand, muscle-mass fading away in a burst of tendrils, and touched the strange oval. Mercer was fairly sure that his hand should have the same effect as the air conditioning unit, going through it with no effect but that wasn't the case.

Normally he was aware of where each and every piece of his Black-light infected Biomass was but when he but his hand on, and then through, the disc, it just seemed to ... go, like it had ceased to exist or something similar.

Mercer glared at the silver disc, then tried to pull his arm back.

Nothing happened.

He grunted, then pulled harder to try and retrieve his arm from wherever it had gone and, if anything found himself being pulled into the disc more, rather than out of it.

There was a sudden jerk and then Mercer found himself being slowly but surely pulled into the metal disc. Mercer gritted his teeth and dug in his feet, still trying to pull his arm free but he lacked the leverage and didn't want to put his other hand on the disc to get his right arm out.

Although perhaps disc was the wrong term, Mercer thought absently as he was pulled into it completely, perhaps portal would have been the better term.

Maybe he should have just cut off the arm.

- E.P - E.P –

Louise was nervous. Actually she was more than nervous, she was also terrified and desperate and a whole lot of other things as well but regardless of what she felt they were all caused by the same thing.

The Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual.

Unlike all the others spells she had tried and failed, each and every one of them having resulted in an explosion, she couldn't afford to fail here. The Ritual was sacred and undertaken by every mage, and failure meant that she would be expelled from Tristain Academy. She had tried so hard to live up to her mother's legacy, she was the top academic student in all areas but it wasn't enough.

Louise had spent so long in the library, each book and scroll granting her a little more knowledge, a little higher chance that the ritual would go right. She had boasted that she would summon a familiar greater than any other, but truly she would take anything.

After all, the Headmaster's familiar was only a mouse.

Louise shifted nervously, moving from foot to foot as the other students summoned their own familiars. Tabitha had summoned a Rhyme dragon, the most impressive summon so far, and her classmates' cries of admiration and jealousy had delay her own attempt by a few minutes, a few minutes more to stew in her own despair.

She had shrugged off Kirche's comments as much as possible, even when her own Salamander appeared, an impressive specimen aligned perfectly with Kirche's own element.

"-Vallière has yet to go," Kirche's sultry tones came, cutting through the words running round in Louise's mind as every eye was drawn to her.

There were more than a few giggles as she walked in front of her classmates, even as they backed away from the immanent explosion they believed was coming. Louise swallowed, trying to push it all out of her mind, raising her wand and concentrating only on the words she had spent so long coming up with.

"My servant that exists somewhere in this vast universe," Louise began, ignoring the comments about her unusual chant, "My divine, beautiful, wise, powerful servant, heed my call, I wish from the very bottom of my heart and add to my guidance and appear!"

There was an explosion as usual, but it seemed smaller than normal, even if it kicked up even more dust and debris. Louise coughed and waved her hand in front of her mouth, peering in vain to stop her familiar through the thick smoke.

There was a sudden movement in the clouds, something shooting towards her and grabbing her, cutting off her air, pulling her into the smoke _and then there was pain, oh Brimir, __**there was pain, it hur-**_

- E.P - E.P -

Mercer was greeted by great clouds of smoke after he fell out of the portal and crashed into the ground with a boom, kicking up even more dirt to accompany what was already in the air. He could feel all his Biomass again, even that he had thought he'd lost to the silver portal, but he could also feel grass under his feet and he was fairly sure he'd been quite a distance from the nearest park.

The air was different as well, once you got past the smoke, it was cleaner, and lacking that distinct texture of the city. A burst of Biomass sent to his eyes changed them, letting Mercer see into both infrared and ultraviolet, then another burst and thermal and infected vision activated.

The smoke and clouds apparently weren't very thick, but the other side of them were a few dozen thermal signatures, most of them humans, but plenty of smaller animal ones as well. He idly noted that none of them were infected which was good, but he still had no idea what had just happened or where he was.

Another burst of Biomass and his right arm writhed with tendrils. It bulked up, muscles moving round to create a great cable of flesh, tipped with barbs and capable of extending more than a score of metres, although it was safely coiled at the moment.

Mercer though his arm forwards, propelling the whip-fist forward towards the nearest thermal signature, a somewhat small one that had drawn attention to itself by moving. He let the whip-fist coil around the human's throat to cut off any cries, then pulled it back towards him, only for the flying body to meet his tendrils coming the other way.

He could feel them burrowing into the body's flesh, ignoring the thrashing of the source of Biomass and information, and quickly tore apart and consumed it. He could feel the Biomass augmenting his reserves, even as a new emptiness was added to the insatiable void of his hunger at the core of his existence. Mercer quickly submerged himself in the memories, those of a young female, and gathered what information he could...

What.

This was...

These memories made no sense, Mercer thought, frantically devolving through them, this child thought she was a mage! He went though more and more, watching as her classmates performed acts of magic she could not, special effects surely.

How could this girl have been so mislead, but as more and more memories floated in, an entire society based on magi-

Two moons.

She thought there were two moons.

Mercer paused.

This was too elaborate for some kind of lie and he didn't want to give himself away to early, not until he could work out some mental reference points. Flicking through the female memories quickly, Louise Françoise Le Blanc De La Vallière what a mouthful of a name that was, he tried to find a way to fit in. She'd been about to summon her familiar...

Oops.

Well, that was out, as he'd apparently consumed the mage that had summoned him to this world, although her memories showed she hadn't meant to. Submerging himself in Louise's memories he let her persona rise to the surface, even as tendrils writhed over his entire form and compressed it into a smaller package, one hand reaching down to pick up her discarded wand.

Probably best that he didn't try and summon a familiar though, no need to bring Red-light or anything else over to this new world.

- E.P - E.P -

Professor Jean Colbert watched worriedly as the third daughter of his former commander, Karin of the Heavy Wind, attempted her summoning ritual. Moments earlier she had kicked up greats gouts of smoke and dirt, then seemingly run into the clouds to find her familiar.

He waved his staff, incanting a quick spell under his breath to blow away the smoke and dirt, revealing Louise to stood, completely unharmed, and petting a small owl that was perched on her arm. Jean sighed in relief before examining the bird closer, the odd patterns in its feathers probably indicating where the familiar runes would be.

At least Louise was safe. Karin would kill him if he let her daughter get hurt on his watch.

He ignored the comments from Louise classmates about her might and powerful familiar, even as she retorted to Kirche about her wise Owl compared to Kirche's Salamander that only showed she was in heat all of the time, Louise's pride would never accept it if he steeped in to help her, Rule of Steel and all that.

- E.P - E.P -

The Owl? It's a nocturnal bird, thus Mercer/Louise has plenty of excuse as to why it's not around.

I'm not going to continue this, but if anyone wants to take it up then feel free.


End file.
